Last season was our first season with the new boat. The boat was new to us so there is a bunch of fix fix it up work that needed to get done. When the boat was being winterized, I asked about having it detailed. I heard BLAH, BLAH, Wet sand, BLAH BLAH $1500. Needless to say, that inspired me to learn how to do it myself. So, I grabbed a 50% off coupon for Harbour Freight and order a Meguiars gel coat kit off of Amazon. I was in for $60 and ready to go.
This is what I had to start with. The boat had been sitting in the water with only the fitted cover, so there was a fair amount of oxidation in the gel coat.
I followed the instructions pretty religiously. I would do a round of the oxidation remover with terry cloth buffers, and then let it sit and “dry out” for a week or so. Sometimes I had to wait a bit more for the weekend with no hockey to line up with nice weather. I then touch up where I missed with the oxidation remover, and then go over the polish with a sheepskin cover and the wax with a microfiber cover of by hand. This is what I ended up with:
The good new is that I can see my reflection in the gelcoat. The bad new is that the oxidtion was covering a few gel coat scratches 
. I may try and pick up some gel coat repair at some point and try and clean it up. Along the way I got some great help from Jenny, who was more interested in how above the rub rail looked. So, here are a couple of photos to show off her work as well:
At the end of the day, I think we paid about $100 in product and covers. I would estimate about 15 hours of work over 3-4 weekends. We could have done it in a day and a half if weather and hockey had not gotten in the way. All and all, very rewarding!
Looks awesome!
Nice Job.